Investors can put capital into stable assets like land and property, or into dynamic assets like a business. Business investments are attractive because they can offer far higher returns — if the business is run well. Delivering a better return on investment therefore is the economic reason most businesses exist.
Yet many business owners also have a higher purpose. While they may have had an insight into a more profitable way of doing something, it’s usually something they care deeply about as well. If they can articulate this purpose convincingly they can attract the capital and talent they need to realise it.
Clear communication of the owner’s intent — what they want to achieve with the business — is essential. But this is not a task for marketing to write a clever, but artificial vision statement. It’s about continually thinking what success looks like, in what field of play, and why this should matter to others.
From Grand Strategy to Business Strategy
Tools like Porter’s five forces, PESTLE analysis and foresight sessions can help owners refine their vision. This needs to be coupled with rigorous analysis of the capital available to ensure the means support the end sought. Once finalised, this becomes the grand strategy: the destination the business must aim for.
The grand strategy is handed over to the business leader, who must now craft a business strategy explaining how they will get there. Step one is breaking the grand strategy down into intermediate aims to achieve and immediate problems to solve. These become the missions the rest of the business will focus on.
Yet many business leaders neglect to set missions, which leads to two critical errors:
To avoid the misalignment of talent and over-reliance on a single decision-maker, the leader must identify the key missions the business will need to achieve, if they’re going to be successful. Because leaders who articulate aims and problems clearly consistently get more done, with less effort, faster than rivals.
Quick Test
Can you name the top three aims to achieve or problems to solve your business is working on today?
If not, is it because these missions haven’t been identified — or just not communicated?
What Next?
What well-articulated missions look like and how to create them.
To follow this series join the Telegram channel t.me/wardleymapping
Or subscribe to the blog https://powermaps.net/blog
If you found this post useful consider sharing it with others.
And if you’d like to think and act strategically in your organisation explore more here: https://powermaps.net
Yet many business owners also have a higher purpose. While they may have had an insight into a more profitable way of doing something, it’s usually something they care deeply about as well. If they can articulate this purpose convincingly they can attract the capital and talent they need to realise it.
Clear communication of the owner’s intent — what they want to achieve with the business — is essential. But this is not a task for marketing to write a clever, but artificial vision statement. It’s about continually thinking what success looks like, in what field of play, and why this should matter to others.
From Grand Strategy to Business Strategy
Tools like Porter’s five forces, PESTLE analysis and foresight sessions can help owners refine their vision. This needs to be coupled with rigorous analysis of the capital available to ensure the means support the end sought. Once finalised, this becomes the grand strategy: the destination the business must aim for.
The grand strategy is handed over to the business leader, who must now craft a business strategy explaining how they will get there. Step one is breaking the grand strategy down into intermediate aims to achieve and immediate problems to solve. These become the missions the rest of the business will focus on.
Yet many business leaders neglect to set missions, which leads to two critical errors:
- Misalignment: Leaders mistakenly assume everyone knows what they should be doing and should simply “get on with it”. But insufficient communication of missions leads to widespread misalignment and waste, as talent focuses on the wrong things.
- Overreach: Feeling the pressure to find solutions themselves, leaders rely on their own intuition — applying past patterns of success onto the current situation. And this can be wildly misleading in a rapidly-changing environment — no matter how smart or experienced the leader is.
To avoid the misalignment of talent and over-reliance on a single decision-maker, the leader must identify the key missions the business will need to achieve, if they’re going to be successful. Because leaders who articulate aims and problems clearly consistently get more done, with less effort, faster than rivals.
Quick Test
Can you name the top three aims to achieve or problems to solve your business is working on today?
If not, is it because these missions haven’t been identified — or just not communicated?
What Next?
What well-articulated missions look like and how to create them.
To follow this series join the Telegram channel t.me/wardleymapping
Or subscribe to the blog https://powermaps.net/blog
If you found this post useful consider sharing it with others.
And if you’d like to think and act strategically in your organisation explore more here: https://powermaps.net
